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    The Fear: Robert Mugabe and the Martyrdom of Zimbabwe
    The Fear: Robert Mugabe and the Martyrdom of Zimbabwe
    The Fear: Robert Mugabe and the Martyrdom of Zimbabwe
    Audiobook12 hours

    The Fear: Robert Mugabe and the Martyrdom of Zimbabwe

    Written by Peter Godwin

    Narrated by Peter Godwin

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Born in what's now called Zimbabwe, journalist Peter Godwin returns to his homeland in 2008 after three decades of Robert Mugabe's brutal economic and human destruction. Hoping to "dance on Mugabe's political grave" in the wake of the tyrant's defeat at the polls, Godwin instead risks his life to secretly chronicle Mugabe's ruthless backlash of torture and terror locals call "The Fear." ". heart-wrenching and extremely moving."-Kirkus Reviews
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateSep 16, 2011
    ISBN9781461849636
    The Fear: Robert Mugabe and the Martyrdom of Zimbabwe
    Author

    Peter Godwin

    Peter Godwin is an award winning author and journalist. Born and raised in Zimbabwe, he studied law and international relations at Cambridge and Oxford. He worked as a foreign correspondent in Africa and Eastern Europe for The Sunday Times of London. He was founding presenter and writer of Assignment/Correspondent, BBC TV's premier foreign affairs program. He now lives in Manhattan and contributes regularly to National Geographic, New York Times Magazine, and BBC Radio, among others.

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    Reviews for The Fear

    4.5/5

    9 ratings6 reviews

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    • 3/5
      In 2008, there was a “democratic” election in Zimbabwe, which apparently defeated its long-time leader/dictator, Robert Mugabe. Mugabe, however, wouldn’t accept it, so while there was to be a re-vote, Mugabe’s people hunted down and tortured and/or murdered people known to be voting against him. The (white) author, who had been born in Zimbabwe, and was now a journalist elsewhere, decided to head back and talked to Zimbabwean people to bear witness. The book followed the author as he travelled across the country to talk to the people. There were a lot of people and much of the book, particularly the first half, focused on telling the stories of those who had been tortured. Because there were so many people, I sometimes found it hard to follow – is this a new person, or is this one of the people already mentioned? Some of the other parts were a bit dry for me. It’s horrible, everything that happened, but I found much of the book (though not all) a dry read, unfortunately. This book is copyrighted 2010, so I looked up Mugabe. The man, at 90-something years old now, is still alive and sadly, still the leader of the country.
    • 5/5
      Short Version:“This a book by a brave man about people who are braver still. Peter Godwin brings us closer to the filth of the Mugabe tyranny than is bearable and portrays with subtlety, authority, and respect those who, against all odds and at the cost of unimaginable suffering, continue the resistance against it. Their courage is the stuff of myth, and in Godwin they have found their chronicler.”David RieffLong Version:Some books are tough to read. Some we need to read. Peter Godwin’s newest, The Fear, is one of those books. By far one of the most haunting books I have ever read, this work chronicles the fate of Zimbabwe’s opposition after their victory, in a democratic election, to oust dictator Robert Mugabe after his thirty years of despotic rule. For their bravery in standing up and saying, “No more!”, followers of the MDC party faced torture, terror, intimidation, and death.Right about the time that I felt as if this would be a book that I could not finish Peter returned to his wife and two young sons in New York, and he was feeling much the same way. While playing dinos with his boy he envisioned a chart hanging on the end of a young torture victim’s bed, upon which the nurses had put a fierce-some T-rex sticker-a symbol of the boy’s spirit. The dichotomy of his sons’ lives and those of the children in the land of his birth overwhelmed him.In every act, every conversation, he flashed back to his homeland, and in doing so, he realized that he didn’t write this book for himself-he wrote it for the thousands of victims of thirty years of Mugabe rule in his beloved Zimbabwe. This was a story he was called to tell, for the simple reason that he could. He must bear witness to The Fear, bring the truth of it to the attention of the outside world, and bring hope to those actively engaged in their country’s fight for freedom from tyranny.Knowing that Peter Godwin is a print journalist, I fully expected excellent reporting, and he definitely delivered. The book is well organized and any digressions from chronology are clear and well transitioned. Despite dealing with a huge cast of players, he gave enough information to remind the reader where they had met a person previously, and no person ever felt extraneous. Some levity is injected into an otherwise dark narrative in the form of an almost gallowsish humor. What I did not expect was the formidable strength of his ability to paint Zimbabwe in my mind-her stunning natural beauty, economic free-fall, collapsed civil structure, and complex society were vibrant within his prose.Above all else, this book is about the triumph of humanity in the most wretched of circumstances. It is the story of people who stand, in the face of a reality so horrific that most of us can not even apprehend it, and refuse to be silenced, even unto death. Please read their story. Let Peter’s decision to write this difficult tale gain traction in your ability to share your reading experience with others you know. The fight in Zimbabwe is ongoing. If democracy is to prevail-and the suffering of thousands of torture victims be vindicated-the world must listen and speak and stand.Star ranking: absolutely five stars
    • 5/5
      This is the story of Robert Mugabe and company as they continue to destroy Zimbabwe. It cover the period of the elections a few years ago. It is filled with beatings, assults, rapes, murder, burning of people and property as a campaign strategy. Mugabe has so mismanaged the country so badly that inflation was out of control, resulting in Z$400 trillion electric bills.
    • 5/5
      The third book In Godwin's triology of life in Rhodesia transformed into Zimbabwe...testimony of how one man can destroy an enitre nation with fear. Again, history repeats itself with the story of Zimbabwe's downfall. The detailed accounts of torture and insanity help to expose Mugabe and his entourage for the despots they are and by naming all the victims and revealing their stories gives some justice to their cause. Thank you Mr. Godwin for making us aware.
    • 4/5
      Horrific view of the atrocities done to the Zimbabwean people, the whims of a tyrant, and the psychology of non-violent resistance. Terrifying, and necessary.
    • 4/5
      An exceptionally well-written account of the brutal actions of Robert Mugabe's dictatorship, desperate to remain in power. His party's landslide loss in the 2008 elections threatens an end to his 30-plus years in power, a regime marked by complete economic collapse and brutal repression of all political opponents. Godwin calls out perpetrators by name and chronicles their atrocities. Powerful and enlightening.